July 2006

Microsoft's lauded Xbox Live online service is one of the major reasons why Microsoft is gaining market share and the respect of gamers around the world.

The company will soon be bringing its online service to Windows and mobile devices, an advance deemed so significant that Bill Gates attended E3 for this first time to make the "Live Anywhere" announcement.

Screen Play spoke to David Hufford, Director of Xbox Product Management for Microsoft, to get more detail on the future of Xbox Live.

Violent zombie horror game Dead Rising was given an MA15+ rating by Australia's OFLC yesterday, despite being refused classification in Germany.

The Xbox 360 game, which sees players controlling a photo-journalist forced to battle hordes of the undead, was deemed too violent in Germany because of the manner in which players must hack and slash enemies to fend them off.

Many gaming fans are barracking for underdog Nintendo in the next-generation console battle, particularly after their triumphant showing at E3.

With Nintendo's focus on innovation and new experiences rather than high-resolution graphics, Wii has excited even the most jaded gamers.

Some industry commentators are even predicting Nintendo will dominate next-generation console sales thanks to its significantly lower price tag, expected to be $329 in Australia. Xbox 360 starts from $499 and PlayStation 3 from $829.

However, rival console manufacturers Sony and Microsoft might not be the only companies concerned about Nintendo's possible resurgence in the home console market.

The Street reports that third-party publishers were caught off-guard by the fervor surrounding Nintendo's motion-sensing Wii-mote, and will not be able to take advantage of the console's pre-Christmas debut.

Rock 'n roll, comics, movies, television and even certain types of books have suffered condemnation in the past, but games are currently the most common target for scaremongers.

Unfortunately, parents are made to feel guilty and fearful of the impact that games will have on their children. Aggression, hyperactivity, obesity, isolation and addiction are typical concerns.

The Australian Centre for the Moving Image wants to educate parents worried about the impact of video games, recently publishing a free guide to help parents better understand the games their children play and help them make informed decisions about suitable content.

The guide was written by Anthony Hetrih, a teacher, game writer, parent and member of the OFLC's Classification Review Board.

Spokesman Vispi Bhopti says Nintendo Australia has not received any calls from local DS users with cracked consoles, but any units which have the "purely cosmetic" manufacturing fault will be replaced under warranty.

A press release from Nintendo of America says the flaw affects just 0.02 per cent of DS Lite units.

Of course, dropping your DS from the top of the Eureka Tower will not be covered by warranty.

Retro fans will love this tribute to one of the most iconic video games ever made.

The video took over four hours to film and utilised a team of 67 people.

For trivia fans, Space Invaders is now 27 years old. As arguably the first massively successful arcade video game, its popularity forced the Bank of Japan to issue extra 100 Yen coins. Manufacturer Taito had to hire construction trucks to haul coins back to its headquarters.

Screen Play's item on Melbourne House's precarious position prompted an astonishing flood of comments from disgruntled former staff, rival studios and current employees.

Despite the acrimony on (very public) display, the comments also highlight the passion many gamers and developers feel for the studio, one of the pioneers of the Australian game development industry.

As staff were keen to highlight, Melbourne House has survived many crises in the past 27 years, and the Australian industry is hoping Atari can find a buyer for the studio or improve its shaky financial position so the studio can continue its proud history.

Today Screen Play assesses the likelihood of various industry big-hitters acquiring the famous codeshop:

Games routinely feature stereotypical heroes and villians, but a Canadian researcher says many popular games promote racist, negative stereotypes of Asians.

The conclusion seems at odds with the fact that many of the world's best games are made in Japan, but Screen Play is keen to hear your thoughts on whether games promote racism.

Western game makers do tend to stick to buff white males when constructing action heroes, but there is an increasing trend to let users sculpt their own characters. We have also seen some lead characters from diverse backgrounds, such as Prey's hero Tommy, a Cherokee.

Some African-Americans feel that games like the Grand Theft Auto series provide negative stereotypes of blacks, while Sony was recently forced to withdraw a series of PSP advertisements that featured a white woman gripping a black woman by the jaw.

Encouraged by the ubiquity of DVD players and the huge profits of the burgeoning interactive entertainment industry, board game manufacturers have turned to producing DVD versions of old family favourites.

Instead of peering at a card to see if Colonel Mustard killed Miss Scarlet in the ballroom with the candlestick, or getting a drunken mate to read a Trivial Pursuit question asking how many Spice Girls Robbie Williams slept with, you can now just press the remote.

Australians spent $8.5 million on DVD board games in 2005 according to market analysts GfK, and sales this year are up 68 percent.

In 2003 there was not a single DVD board game on the market, but now you can even play bloody Suduku on your tele. Watch out for news that DVD versions of Hungry Hungry Hippos and Ker Plunk are in development.

Sony's latest AFL simulation is released today, and while Screen Play considers 2006 the best effort yet, the game is still a long way from the quality of other sport simulations.

We all know Sony (or any other publisher) is never going to spend as much development time or money on AFL as what gets lavished on world sports like soccer and basketball - titles that can potentially sell millions of copies around the globe.

It's the same deal with EA's cricket and rugby games, only the market for AFL is even smaller.

Screen Play is also aware that with so many players on the paddock, Australia's unique sport is incredibly difficult to simulate.

AFL Premiership 2006 was developed by Melbourne's IR Gurus. Even with four AFL games under its belt, the Gurus are still struggling to replicate the game's speed, athleticism and tactical depth.

Qantas has announced it will offer internet and "digital games" on its new fleet of A380 aircraft.

Let's hope the carrier can get its act together and offer some quality interactive entertainment.

Ever since Qantas introduced personal screens for every passenger, Screen Play has been mystified the airline chose an in-flight system with such offensive, poor-quality games.

Travelers are forced to endure lengthy loading delays just for the privilege of playing appalling, turgid drivel like hangman, mini-golf and a dire version of Breakout. And let's not mention the controller, which makes Intellivision and Jaguar pads look ergonomic.

The future of one of Australia's oldest and best-known development studios looks grim as its troubled parent company continues to offload its assets.

Atari is battling hard to remain solvent, last week selling the Reflections studio and its Driver franchise, one of Atari's most successful properties, to rival publisher Ubisoft.

Atari has been searching for a buyer for development studio Melbourne House for at least six months after defaulting on loan payments and having its line of credit withdrawn. Atari's net losses in the last financial year were US$69 million.

Melbourne House, originally known as Beam Software, is almost as old as the games industry itself and has produced over 160 games since 1980.

The burgeoning trade in second-hand games riles both publishes and developers who believe they are being robbed of legitimate game sales.

Trade in used games is common at both traditional retail outlets like Electronics Boutique and online sites like eBay, and estimated to be worth over $1 billion annually around the world.

Sony patented technology that would prevent PlayStation consoles from playing used, rented or borrowed games back in October 2000, and some analysts have suggested the gaming giant will include the technology in PlayStation 3, despite Sony's denials.

The copy protection would verify a game disc and then register it to a consumer's console. It would then be rendered unreadable in other consoles.

The Australian Centre for the Moving Image has opened its popular game, animation and short film competition to all Australian school students.

Screen It! 2006 asks students to make a splash by creating a computer game, short film, animation, flash animation or mobile phone film with a water theme.

"Following the deluge of entries we received last year, we are extending the 2006 competition to include all Australian secondary school students as well as continuing to have a category for primary students," says Brett McLennan, ACMI Screen Education Manager.

The growth of Australia's game development industry is being hampered by a skills shortage.

Australian developers are currently gearing up for the challenge of developing games for next-generation consoles like PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but are finding their efforts thwarted by a lack of senior, experienced staff.

Ben Palmer, Director of IR Gurus, creators of Heroes of the Pacific and AFL 2006, says it is very difficult to find senior staff at present.

"It's tough. The next-gen projects are demanding, and most studios are hiring at the moment," Ben says.

Rumours are strengthening that Microsoft is developing a portable entertainment device that will play digital music, video and games.

Competing with Apple's iPod, Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DS and Game Boy products would represent a huge challenge even for Bill's behemoth, but would seem inevitable given Microsoft's determination to dominate the games industry.

When Screen Play last year asked Microsoft Vice President J Allard, who oversaw the design of the Xbox 360, whether he was tempted to make the 360's removable hard drive a portable music player to compete with iPod, he responded: "Boy it's tempting, isn't it? It is tempting. Who knows, maybe someday?"

Fledgling digital TV channel ABC2 is coming to the rescue of disgruntled gamers with a TV program "about games, for gamers, by gamers".

Publicity Coordinator Nicola Fern says there were "a few groans here at ABC2" when the team saw Screen Play's piece on Channel 10's upcoming Cybershack technology show, but their program sounds much more promising.

Launching on August 22 at the prime time of 8.30pm, "Good Game" will be hosted by two passionate gamers: Mike Makowski and Jeremy Ray.

The half-hour program will initially run for 13 weeks and include gaming news, reviews, and interviews with "star creators and star players". It will also provide a platform for players' own creative efforts and helpful tips for gaming newcomers.

ABC2 is the ABC's free-to-air digital channel, available on channel 21 for users with a set top box or on selected pay TV services.

Update:

The ABC says the show's premiere has been pushed back to September 19.

Film, television and music industries have produced many famous critics, but this month Esquire magazine asks: "why are there no video game critics?"

Like Screen Play's assertion that "video games are the new pop", Esquire believes "video games in 2006 are the culture equivalent of rock music in 1967".

But columnist Chuck Klosterman laments the fact that there are no Lester Bangs of the gaming world, "no major critic who specializes in explaining what playing a given game feels like, nor anyone analyzing what specific games mean in any context outside the game itself."

Australia's television networks continue to all-but ignore the booming popularity of interactive gaming.

Three quarters of all Australian households now have a device for playing computer or console games, and in the past decade, Australian annual spending on gaming products has risen from $90 to over $850 million.

But despite gaming's popularity (and the potentially lucrative advertising revenue on offer to any show that can tap into the gaming zeitgeist) Australia's free-to-air networks devote almost no coverage to interactive entertainment.

Australian game developers are expecting a $95 million windfall from attending this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Australia dispatched its biggest contingent yet to E3 2006, with 45 companies exhibiting at the Games Australia stand.

The investment has already paid dividends, with contracts signed worth over $7.2 million, and the Games Developers Association of Australia is "conservatively forecasting" deals worth $95 million over the next two years.

One undeniable thrill of playing interactive games is indulging in behavior you cannot (or would not) experience in real life.

Digital playgrounds give players the opportunity to feel what's its like to be in the middle of a chaotic battlefield, or the exhilaration of a perfectly executed lap at Nurburgring, or to slot home the winning goal in a World Cup final.

Most games force players to assume the hero stereotype, steadfastly dedicated to truth, justice and the video game way. But developers are realising it is good to be bad.

Games like Evil Genius, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent and even the upcoming Splinter Cell: Double Agent let players explore their dark side and play the villain instead of the hero.

To make matters worse for the fiscally-challenged, the rumour mill is suggesting that only the $999 "premium" version of the console will be initially available in Australia.

To help gamers whose credit card bills are already reeling from recent essential purchases like the DS Lite, Guitar Hero and the Xbox 360, Screen Play today proudly presents the not-so-official list of 25 Things to Pawn to Buy a PS3.

The Australian games development industry is embracing Asia as it gears up for the challenges of creating games for next-generation consoles.

The industry's annual Australian Game Developers Conference will be replaced this year by a new event called Game Connect: Asia-Pacific with a stronger focus on building business ties with Asian companies.

Game Developers Association of Australia President and CEO Evelyn Richardson says the change to the conference "recognises that the Asia-Pacific region is a very important business environment going forward".

Ms Richardson says many Asian companies see Australia as a gateway into the lucrative American market and are keen to partner with Australian developers.

Video games are the new pop. Australians now spend more money on shooters and sims than hip hop and punk rock. Debate the latest news and trends in interactive entertainment with award-winning games writer Jason Hill.

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